Minimum Wage Goes Up in 2014

Hundreds of thousands of Ohioans are getting a raise starting in the New Year. The state’s minimum wage will go up ten cents from $7.85 an hour to $7.95 an hour. The automatic boost comes from a policy known as indexing, which Ohio has adopted along with 11 other states. Indexing raises the minimum wage to account for increases to the cost of living.

Jack Temple, a policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, says the extra ten cents an hour can go a long way.

“What this ten cent boost means is that the same bag of groceries that they could afford last year they can afford this year. The same tank of gas they could buy last year on their paycheck—they’ll be able to buy this year. So it’s a small raise—it’s ten cents an hour but it’s a big difference when it comes to the paychecks of the lowest paid workers of the state.”

Temple praises Ohio for ensuring the value of the minimum wage remains consistent. However, he says the minimum wage in Ohio and most of the other states around the country are still inadequate and must be raised even higher.

According to the National Employment Law Project, the ten cent increase in 2014 will create $38 million in new economic growth.